Apparatus for drying stockings in stacks



Jan- 5, 1954 H. s. DRUM x-:T AL

APPARATUS FOR DRYING STOCKNGS IN STACKS Filed Jan. s, 1951 Patented Jan. 5, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR DRYING STOCKINGS 1N STACKS Sylvania Application January 3, 1951 Serial No. 204,102

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to material drying apparatus and more particularly to a novel apparatus for drying hosiery in stack formation and relates to pending application Serial Number 166,666, filed June '7, 1950.

In the manufacture and handling of hosiery as heretofore practiced, there are two methods in present day use, both of which require two or more handlings of the stockings and the use of skilled operators.

In the first method the knitted stockings are pre-boarded individually, and put into bundles of twelve, after which a number of these bundles are put into a bag. These bags are now placed in a dyeing machine where they are dyed and a finish applied. When this operation is completed, they are removed from the dyeing machine and transferred to a mechanical extractor for extraction of excess liquid. Following this dyeing operation, the stockings are removed from the bags, so that each stocking can be pulled onto a heated hosiery form for drying and reshaping. In some hosiery plants the bundling is dispensed with and the stockings dropped into the dye bag in loose form but still have to be reboarded for drying and reshaping.

In the second method, known as the Dunn system, the stockings are hung in a conditioning chamber where they are exposed to steam to produce what is called a pre-setting. After removal from this cabinet the stockings are then prepared for dyeing in either of the two ways of the rst method, after which the finished boarding operation is carried out on the same piece of apparatus as is used for pre-boarding referred to in the rst method. i

Both of these methods have certain disadvantages which have plagued manufacturers since the introduction of nylon and synthetic fibres. These relatively new fibres produce a Very sheer fabric which is very easily damaged by handling. rihus, in the first method described, there are two individual handlings, and in the second method there is the handling preparing for the pre-setting operation and the iinish boarding operation. Both of these operations must be carried out by skilled operators, and when the stockings are pulled on forms there is always the chance for variation in length due to one operator pulling the stocking down with greater force than another operator. Furthermore, in either of the foregoing methods constant supervision and labor are required because some of the finishing compound adheres to the forms on which the stocking is finish boarded.

This requires the forms to be cleaned on an average of once every two or three hours because otherwise the crystalline nature of the iinish as 2 it bakes on the forms will cause damage to the inside of the stocking.

Some of the objects of the present invention are: to provide an improved apparatus for drying hosiery; to provide an apparatus for drying preboarded stockings in stacks; to provide tray means for supporting stacks of stockings, such trays having bottoms formed of reticulated material for passing of air therethrough when the trays are within the drying chamber; to provide a drying apparatus wherein a succession of separate trays carrying stacks of stockings can be pushed through a drier with allowance for a dry ing operation of each tray; to provide a hosiery drying apparatus including a closed housing for a circulation of heated air in combination with stack-supporting trays having pervious bottoms for passage of air; to provide a hosiery drying apparatus wherein means operate to select cer tain areas of the stocking for greater exposure to a stream of air than other portions, particularly feet, and welt portions; to provide an apparatus for drying nylon hosiery and hosiery knitted of thermo-setting yarn wherein a piu-- rality of stockings, as individually removed from the initial shaping boards, are simultaneously subjected to a stream of air while means are provided for restraining the stockings during the air drying; and to provide other improvements as will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. l represents a sectional elevation of a drying apparatus with associated tray for stockings embodying one form of the present invention; Fig. 2 represents a section on line 2-2 of Fig. l but showing stacks of stockings in drying position; Fig. 3 represents a side elevation, partly broken away, of the coinplete assembly; and Fig. 4 represents a fragmentary perspective of a stocking-carrying tray with a positioned stack of stockings.

Referring to the drawings, one form of drying apparatus comprises an outer casing lil forming a lower generally rectangular chamber I i having oppositely arranged or alined inlet and outlet openings I2 and I3 for the passage of stockingcarrying trays I4 as will later appear. Above the chamber II the side wall of the casing is ccnverges upwardly to form an inner inverted funnel for distributing downwardly directed heated air over on area delined by the size of the aforesaid tray. Also, medially considered, the casing iii forms tworeentrant downwardly converging walls I5 joined together to form a relatively short centrally disposed top I6 for the chamber ii. The two walls I5 with an encircling inner casing I 1 thus provide two open top and bottom passages I8, while the outer casing It forms with the inner casing Il two return ducts 2e. The

open top of each passage I8 mounts a blower 2l driven by an electric motor 22, While the open bottom of each passage I8 receives a mounted iin type heater coil 23. Each duct is provided with a damper-controlled fresh air inlet 2d. Also, each wall l5 is provided with a dampercontrolled hot air discharge outlet 25.

t should be noted that the lower portion of the inner casing il extends below the top I0 to terminate in the plane of the openings l2 and I 3, where each is channel shaped to provide ways 26 for supporting and guiding the carrying trays Ill as each is brought into position for drying in the chamber II. Preferably that portion 0f the casing I0 which forms the bottom of the chamy ber il is formed with an inwardly disposedfprojection 2l' terminating as a plane surface just below and parallel to the planeof travel of the trays. Thus, at each side of the projection the chamber II opens around the channeled end of the inner casing VI and communicates Ywith the respective ducts 20.

In order to diifuse and distribute the ah` on its way to the heater coils 23, .a .perforated dis tributor plate 28 is mounted transversely across each passage i8 adjacent to the discharge of its blower 2I, while between the plate 28 and the heater coil 23 is a second apertured plate 88.

For bringing stacks of preboarded stockings into position for drying, a plurality of trays id are provided of generally rectangular shape and preferably dimensioned to carry several stacks of stockings at a time. Each tray Irl has a wire mesh or reticulated bottom 3! for free circulation of air through the tray and about the stacks thereon. Also, means are provided for restraining and preventing displacement of the stockings when exposed to the moving stream of air, such means, in the present instance, comprising a removable cover for the trays having a perforated top 29 for the passage of the air while preventing relative displacement of the stockings.

From the foregoing it will be seen that two streams of air are circulated through the dryer, each stream travelling downwardly through a heater coil 23 through a tray M around the spaced end of the inner casing I'I vto the return duct 20. By reason of the restricting top I8 and the projection 2l spaced across the leg portion of the stockings, this leg portionis'shielded to some extent from the circulation 'but permitting enough air to reach the leg for effective drying, while the welt and foot portions are respectively subjected to the full circulation of hot air, thereby providing'uniformdrying in a minimum of time.

For effectively handling the trays Ill, a loading platform 32 is provided and is supported' in alinement with the inlet opening I2 so that a tray can be placed thereon and pushed forward into the chamber il for drying purposes. Likewise, the opposite side of the drier is provided with a discharge platform 33, also supported in the plane of travel of the trays and alined with the discharge opening I3. In this way, a tray of stacked stockings is placed upon the loa-ding platform 32, and pushed into dryingposition within the drier, such positioning bringing the foot end in the path of one stream of air and the welt end in the path 0f the other stream, while the leg portion is exposed to indirect air circulation. During this drying a second loaded tray has been placed upon the platform 32, ready to be pushed forward when the stocking stacks of the first tray have been dried. This pushing forward pushes the rst tray out of the drier onto the platform 33 where it is removed. Thus, trays follow each other in succession, each pushing' another into and out of the drier, with the required rest periods between to allow for the drying interval.

While in the foregoing one feature of the invention resides in drying selected areas of the stockings by utilizing two streams of air, the invention is not to be so limited because a single stream of air-can be directed across the length of the stocking and obtain uniform drying. Such drying is impossible when applied to hosiery made of yarns other than nylon or 'thermosetting material because the shape of the stocking is destroyed by the blast of air while nylon and like thermoplastic stockings retain the shaped condition regardless of the air circulation.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

l. A hosiery drying apparatus comprising the combination of a housing forming a chamber, means in sai-d chamber for producing two generally parallel streams of heated air moving in the same direction and spaced substantially by the length of the leg portion of a stocking, a tray removable from said chamber for supporting a stocking-shaped preboarded stack of stockings, with the feet and welts respectively in the path of said streams and the leg portion between sai-d streams, a reticulated bottom in said tray for the passage of said streams, means to support said tray in treating position in said chamber, and means above and below said tray and spaced by the leg supporting portion of said tray for diverting said streams respectively across the welt and foot portion of the stocking to restrict stream flow across the leg portion, whereby the welts, the legs, and the feet of the stockings are dried in the same time interval.

2. A hosiery drying apparatus, the combination of a housing sub-divided to form a transverse chamber having an inlet at one end and two vertically disposed open top passages communicating with-said chamber', return conduits respectively forming with said passages an air circulating channel, Yheating units respectively in said passages, a tray for supporting a stack of preboarded stockings for insertion through said inlet intosaid chamber, means for circulating air through said unit into Contact with said stockings, and a perforated plate ineach of said passages in the path of the air stream.

3. A hosiery drying'apparatus in accordance with claim 2 wherein Aa second perforated plate isn each passage in spaced relation to said .ii-rst plate, the perforations of said second plate being out of alinement with'the -perforations of the first plate.

HARRY S. DRUM. HUG@ F. LIEDTKE. JOSEPH SCHMITZ, Je.

References Qited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 286,509 Vetter Oct. 9, 1883 841,939 Cooke Jan. 22, 1907 842,025 Schwartz, Jr Jan. 22, 1907 1,513,639 Schwartz Oct. 28, 1924 1,804,558 Haas May 12, 1931 1,966,405 Galson et al. July 10, 1934 2,345,138 lViorrill Apr. il, 1944 

